Dreams of the Compass Rose [Kindle Edition]

Vera Nazarian (Author)

Book Description

2002 Nebula Awards Preliminary Ballot Nominee

The world is shaped by two things — stories told and the memories they leave behind.

The Compass Rose universe -- an ancient milieu where places have no names, cities spring forth like bouquets in the desert, gods and dreams walk the scorching sands in the South, ice floats like mirror shards upon the Northern sea, islands that do not exist are found in the East, death chases a thief on the rooftops of a Western city, immortal love spans time, and directions are intertwined into one road we all travel....

You come to this place when you wonder, and sometimes, only when you dream.

What is the nature of evil?

When a young warrior of a dark race finds himself bound in servitude to a beautiful cruel princess, his loyalty becomes entwined with something more horrifying and mysterious than endless night falling over the ancient desert.

When a courageous young servant reveals her hidden wisdom to the madman conqueror of the world, her fate is joined to a nightmare suspended beyond death and outside the universe.

Two souls from different times -- their destinies connected through hundreds of other lives and generations, through soft whispers of the wind, through ancient truths that lie buried in an island between worlds.

Both souls enslaved through dream and desire in an endless conflict between truth and illusion.

They can only be set free by the wonder of the Compass Rose.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers who don't balk at the hefty price will find this first fantasy novel a clever concoction of vignettes and short stories knitted into a morality tale about the temptation of illusion and the price of truth. In an exotic setting reminiscent of Tanith Lee's Flat Earth series, Nazarian introduces a cast of characters all in search of something. Learra quests for the legendary island of Amarantea, "where the soul flies in search of wonder, when sleep takes you by the eyelashes," only to turn her back on it in the end. Cruel Lord Cireive executes Ailsan, Queen of Risei, the last of her people, only to find that her death gives her the power to defeat him. A king determined to find the "true End of the World" sends off teams of explorers, only to reject their discovery and suffer the consequences. Storyteller Annaelit insults the god of Things Left Over and finds herself at odds with her own counsel: "the world is shaped by two things stories told and the memories they leave behind." At the core of this sprawling saga is Nadir, "lowest of the low," whose only chance at redemption lies in saving the soul of a heartless wizard's daughter from the Lord of Illusion. The author's sumptuous language will resonate with Lord Dunsany and Clark Ashton Smith fans, even if it's not to most modern tastes. Despite a tendency to belabor the obvious, as when a wise servant tells her foolish master, "in the end only the truth will save us," Nazarian's vital themes and engaging characters are sure to entertain.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Nazarian's story cycle treads the borderline between the episodic novel and the short-story collection, recalling the work of contemporary fantasist Charles de Lint, early-twentieth-century fantasist Lord Dunsany, and even, reaching way back, The Thousand and One Nights. The book's underlying theme is the convergence of souls through the operations of the Compass Rose, located in the island realm of Amarantea and employing warriors and princesses, servants and conquerors, and, above all, storytellers. Nazarian's characterizations are sometimes uncertain, but her imagery is rich, vivid, and memorable, not to mention being remarkable because she realizes it not in her native language, Russian, but in English. She honors another tradition of the fantasy story cycle--slow pacing--but makes sure that the book can be read in snippets with no loss of pleasure or appreciation. Indeed, this is a singularly appealing book by a new voice in fantasy. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 591 KB
• Print Length: 320 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Norilana Books (September 15, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00439GNH8
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,305 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard fantasy, exotic, mysterious and compelling February 6, 2002

By David M Bloom

Format:Hardcover

This fantasy novel is a story cycle with a mystery. The action takes place in a world that resembles our own in many ways. Nazarian titles each of her chapters "Dreams" and like dreams, the narrative changes point of view. The narrative involving the central characters changes from first person to third person providing insights into various characters from the various points of view. I was reminded of another recent book, David Brin's "Kiln People" in which Brin's characters can make copies of themselves, so that the reader is provided with different perspectives of the same scene, and, at the same time perspectives of the same time from different places, by the same character.

Nazarian's rich imagery created for me a world of vast beauty, and the disappearance of the beauty of the world; and characters? longing for what was lost. There is a society based on justice, mercy, and compassion, that has become corrupted. I was reminded a bit of Stephan R. Donaldson Thomas Covenant series in which The Land is described as something that once so beautiful, but has been despoiled by Lord Foul, in his first novel of the series Lord Foul's Bane.

There are people possessed with magical abilities, but magic in Nazarian's world is subtle, and unlike in Rowling's world of Harry Potter, tends to be internalized. Nazarian's has a gift for page-turning dialog, and realizes her characters in a way that lets us know these are real people, torn by internal struggle and extraordinary external forces. These are people who react to circumstances in ways we know and ways that are surprising, like we know in life. For example, we get to know Nadir first as a young child who survived the desert. From a peripheral character, we see him again as a young man, touched by magic, and then, grown up intensely loyal, honest, and strong. Can he save the woman he thinks hates him? Should he? So why does he protect her? And yet, this book is not about Nadir.

Nazarian created a world I hope to read more stories from. It is a place of mythology and wonder, struggle and passion. It is a world of lands beyond the oceans, searing deserts, mist-filled mountains to the east, and a 1000-moon night. There are more stories waiting to be told.

By the last chapter, I felt that pang of regret knowing I was at the end. I didn't want it to end already. I look forward to reading more of Nazarian's work.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Fantasy May 9, 2002

By Rochelle Mitchell

Format:Hardcover

I found Vera Nazarian's book to be a wonderful journey into foreign lands. It reinvents the old-time fantasy reminisent of a time before Tolkien and Tolkien wannabees. She creates a world rich in myth and culture. The places of the Compass Rose are places I wish to visit again and again. Her stories and characters take the reader by surprise. I highly recommend this book.

39 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Reading Experience February 11, 2002

By William Sanders

Format:Hardcover

I have to say up front that I do not read much fantasy of the classical or "high" sort; and so I wasn't sure I'd like this book. I'm still a little surprised that I liked it as much as I did; it's not the kind of thing I would usually go for.

Perhaps that is the mark of a really good writer, that she can make you enjoy something you usually wouldn't read. Vera Nazarian certainly made it work for me.

This is not exactly a novel, and not exactly a collection; I'm not quite sure what you'd call it - basically a group of stories set in the same fantastic world, and linked together by various associations. Some of the characters appear in more than one story, but the individual stories could stand alone I suppose - but the cumulative effect is very powerful and evocative; the whole definitely is greater than the sum of its parts.

This book can be read as simple fantasy entertainment, and no doubt would be very enjoyable as such; but on a deeper level Vera Nazarian isn't just telling strange and exotic tales; she's saying some things about the human condition, and they are things worth saying.

The writing itself is excellent. That sort of high formal voice is very difficult to bring off - it may be the most demanding of narrative styles - but Vera Nazarian succeeds where more experienced writers have crashed and burned.

It's hard to come up with comparisons. Lord Dunsany comes to mind as perhaps the closest in style, but DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE has flashes of mordant humor that you'd never find in Dunsany. I was also reminded of some of the early work of Vonda MacIntyre, and now and then a line or a scene would make me think of Roger Zelazny.

I knew Roger personally, and I feel certain he would have liked this book. I certainly did.

More About the Author

VERA NAZARIAN is a two-time Nebula Award Nominee, award-winning artist, and member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a writer and reader with a penchant for moral fables and stories of intense wonder, true love, and intricacy.

She is the author of critically acclaimed novels DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE and LORDS OF RAINBOW, as well as the outrageous parodies MANSFIELD PARK AND MUMMIES and NORTHANGER ABBEY AND ANGELS AND DRAGONS, and most recently, PRIDE AND PLATYPUS: MR. DARCY'S DREADFUL SECRET in her humorous and surprisingly romantic Supernatural Jane Austen Series.

After many years in Los Angeles, Vera lives in a small town in Vermont, and uses her Armenian sense of humor and her Russian sense of suffering to bake conflicted pirozhki and make art.

Her official author website is www.veranazarian.com